This invention relates to fabric softening compounds and to a method for softening textiles. More particularly this invention relates to certain quaternary ammonium compounds and their use in softening textiles.
Quaternary ammonium compounds and their use in softening textiles or conditioning other substrates such as hair have been long recognized in the prior art. Such quaternary ammonium compounds which have alkoxy groups, such as ethoxy, attached to the quaternary nitrogen atom have also been known in the art. In this respect, reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,189,397, 2,775,604, 2,824,861, 3,026,169, 3,352,709, 3,456,013, 3,872,138, 4,118,324, 4,129,506, 4,134,970, 4,136,039, and 4,139,477.
One of the properties of concern to users of such quaternary ammonium compounds is the liquidity of the product. Thus, it is desirable that fabric softening compounds be as liquid as possible to reduce the necessity, for example, of utilizing heated railroad cars for transportation of the bulk compound, or the use of heated holding tanks and transfer lines to assure that the compound is maintained in a liquid state. This is especially true in view of the recent desirability to minimize the energy which is needed for any type of processing. Therefore, if a more liquid product is produced, the amount of energy required to transport and store the product is minimized. Also, liquid products are generally cold water dispersible, negating the need to heat water to make diluted solutions or dispersions of the concentrated softener.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide quaternary ammonium compounds which exhibit increased liquidity over other prior art compounds.
Also, as many of the quaternary ammonium compounds which are known in the art are chloride salts which are known to have corrosive properties, an object of this invention is to provide quaternary ammonium compounds which are less corrosive.
A further object is to produce compounds free of volatile and flammable solvents that serve only as a reaction media and have no value for providing softening.